This year's Oscar nominations will be unveiled Thursday in an announcement delayed by the devastating Los Angeles wildfires, with transgender cartel musical "Emilia Perez" expected to lead a highly competitive field.

Voting deadlines had to be extended this month, as the US entertainment capital and home city of the Academy Awards was devastated by multiple blazes that have killed more than two dozen people and forced tens of thousands to flee.

Nominees will be unveiled virtually, and in subdued circumstances, as a town that typically fixates on the Oscars race has more pressing matters to handle.

Even so, the glitzy Oscars ceremony itself is still set for March 2, and the stars and studios who have spent months and millions of dollars campaigning will learn if they have made the coveted final shortlists.

"Emilia Perez," French director Jacques Audiard's Mexico-set musical, in which a narco boss transitions to life as a woman and turns her back on crime, seems certain to pick up best picture and multiple song, score and sound nods.

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